Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to heaters, including heater assemblies with multiple heater modules for heating pipes, valves, and other piping system components.
State of the Prior Art
Many vacuum, process, transport, and other systems used in industry for conducting or moving various gaseous, liquid, or solid materials from one point to another include pipes, valves, and other pipe system components of various lengths, sizes, and shapes that have to be heated to maintain the pipes and/or materials in the pipes within certain temperature ranges. Pipe heaters for heating pipes for these and other purposes are well known to persons skilled in the art and have ranged from simple resistive wires and tape wrapped around the pipes to more sophisticated, insulated pipe heaters, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,714,738 (Hauschultz et al.), which is incorporated herein by reference, as well as many such heater products that are available commercially.
Along with the development of pipe heaters for various pipe heating applications, there was also a need for better pipe heater control systems for regulating heat output from the heaters along lengths of pipe and for monitoring and controlling such heater operations. There are many kinds and configurations of such heater control systems, such as the ones described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,894,254 (Hauschultz), which is also incorporated herein by reference. More versatility in pipe heater assemblies and better control features have also been developed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,932,480 (Gu, et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 8,541,716 (Gu, et al.), both of which are incorporated herein by reference. However, such versatility and features have added complexity and components that are cumbersome to assemble and difficult to mount, and, when installed on piping systems, are susceptible to water leakage and damage from moisture incursion, magnetic interference, enhanced radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic radiation interference, ultraviolet UV) radiation, and other environmental issues, and they are somewhat messy and susceptible to snagging, inadvertent disconnection, and other problems.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art and other examples of related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.